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DANTE'S 

Attitude  Toward  the  Church 


and 


The  Clergy  of  His  Times 


BY 

Right  Rev.  Msgr.  J.  T.  SLATTERY,  Ph.D. 


PUBLISHED  BY 

JOHN  JOSEPH  McVEY 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 
1921 


DANTE'S 

Attitude  Toward  the  Church 


and 


The  Clergy  of  His  Times 


BY 

Right  Rev.  Msgr.  J.  T.  SLATTERY,  Fh.D. 


PUBLISHED  BY 

JOHN  JOSEPH  McVEY 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 
1921 

I 

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• 


Copyright,  1921 
JOHN  JOS.  McVEY 


Printed  in  the  U.  S.  A. 


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DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 
AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIME 


i. 

Dante's  Orthodoxy. 


"  p\ANTE  is  ours,"  wrote  Pope  Benedict  XV  to  the  Arch- 
Ly      bishop  of  Ravenna,  in  his  Encyclical  encouraging 
him  to  make  fitting  preparations  for  the  celebration  this  year 
of  the  sexcentenary  of  the  death  of  the  immortal  poet. 

The  words  may  be  regarded  as  an  affectionate  tribute,  ex- 
pressing the  obligation  of  all  Italy  to  the  genius  of  Dante,  its 
supreme  poet,  and  the  father  of  its  common  tongue.  For  cen- 
turies stately  Latin  had  been  the  spoken  language  of  educated 
Europe  and  the  vehicle  of  its  literature.  Dante  himself,  up- 
holding the  supremacy  of  the  ancient  tongue  for  nobleness, 
strength,  and  beauty,  employed  it  as  the  medium  of  his  De 
Vulgari  Eloquentia,  De  Monarchia,  and  some  of  his  eclogues, 
and  actually  began  his  Divine  Comedy  in  the  language  enriched 
by  Ovid,  Horace,  and  Virgil.  Then,  breaking  all  traditions, 
he  put  his  undying  thought  into  living  Italian  and  so  moulded 
uniquely  the  vernacular  which  up  to  that  time  had  consisted 
of  dialects  rough  and  limited  in  vocabulary,  fluctuating,  con- 
fused and  corrupt  in  construction.  It  has  maintained  its  per- 
fection through  six  centuries  of  variations  and  it  still  remains 
the  national  tongue,  the  great  bond  of  Italian  life.  Unlettered 
peasants  not  only  converse  in  Dante's  native  tongue  but  easily 
quote  lines  from  his  immortal  work.  Poets  and  prose  writers 
from  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio  down  to  D'Annunzio  and  Croce 
regard  Dante's  language  and  style  as  the  great  standard  of 

4011  >79 


2  DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 

Italian  composition,  unsurpassable  for  chasteness  and  vigor. 
So  the  Roman  Pontiff,  addressing  the  Italian  people,  may  well 
say:  "Dante  is  ours" — Dante,  son  of  Italy,  whose  undying 
personality  realizes  the  prediction  which  Byron  has  him  utter : 

My  bones  shall  rest  within  thy  breast, 
My  soul  within  thy  language. 

But  the  Holy  Father,  in  making  claim  to  Dante,  is  looking 
from  a  viewpoint  that  transcends  the  confines  of  nationality. 
As  the  head  of  the  Church  he  exhorts  the  Catholic  world  to 
offer  homage  to   Dante  because   he   is   without  question   the 
supreme  poet  of  Catholicity.     The  words  of  the  Brief  leave  no 
doubt  as  to  the  meaning  of  His  Holiness :  "  There  is  an  added 
reason  why  we  should  celebrate  this  solemnity :  namely,  Dante 
is  ours.     For  the  Florentine  poet,  as  everybody  knows,  com- 
bined the  study  of  natural  science  with  the  study  of  religion ; 
he  invigorated  his  mind  with  the  intimate  teaching  of  the 
Catholic  Church;  he  nourished  his  spirit  with  the  purest  and 
most  sublime  sentiments  of  humanity  and  of  justice.      The 
pangs  of  exile,  the  hardships  of  suffering  and  political  reasons 
may  at  times, have  turned  him  from  equity  of  judgment,  but  he 
himself  never  deflected  from  the  Christian  doctrine.     Who  can 
doubt  that  our  Dante  so  fed  the  flame  of  his  genius  and  his 
political  art  with  the  inspiration  of  Catholic  faith  when,  in  a 
poem  almost  divine,  he  sang  of  the  most  august  mysteries  of 
our   religion?     It   is,   therefore,    with    grateful    remembrance 
and  supreme  honor  that  his  name  ought  to  be  celebrated  by 
all  Catholics  throughout  the  world." 

Although  several  of  the  latter-day  Popes  extolled  Dante 
for  the  sublimity  of  his  religious  sentiment,  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  the  words  of  Pope  Benedict  XV  form,  perhaps,  the 
most  illuminating  document  ever  issued  by  the  Vatican  in  favor 
of  Dante's  supremacy  as  a  poet.  This  official  recognition  also 
settles  for  all  time  the  question  of  Dante's  fidelity  to  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Church. 

The  poet  has  been  proclaimed  by  some  non-Catholics  as  a 
precursor  of  the  Reformation,  while  others  assert  that  the 
Church  is  claiming  Dante  as  her  own  either  because  his  fame 
is  so  universal  or  because  his  rehabilitation,  like  Joan  of  Arc's, 
is  the  tardy  recognition  and  reparation^of  an  injustice  done  to 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES.  3 

him  by  churchmen.  Even  to  some  Catholics  who  know  Dante's 
works  only  superficially,  his  attitude  toward  the  Catholic  faith 
and  clergy  offers  not  a  few  difficulties  apparently  irreconcil- 
able with  the  profession  and  practice  of  a  faithful  son  of  the 
Church.  How,  for  instance,  they  ask,  can  Dante  be  praised 
as  a  Catholic  when  his  book  De  Monarchic  was  placed  on  the 
Index  of  Prohibited  Books  by  the  Council  of  Trent?  On  the  plea 
that  the  book  contained  heresy,  it  had  already  been  condemned 
and  had  been  burnt  in  Lombardy  in  1329  by  Cardinal  Ber- 
trando  Del  Poggeto,  legate  of  Pope  John  XXII.  Furthermore, 
a  prohibition  against  all  of  Dante's  works  was  made  by  a  pro- 
vincial council  of  the  Dominicans  held  at  Florence  in  the  year 
1335.  About  that  time  a  Dominican,  Guido  Vernani,  had 
written  his  Contra  Dantem,  a  work  more  passionate  than  logi- 
cal. In  it  Dante's  orthodoxy  was  impugned.  The  Friars 
Minor  had  accused  the  poet,  dead  at  the  time,  of  heresy  and 
had  summoned  him  to  appear  before  the  Inquisition  to  make 
an  act  of  faith.  ^ 

How  can  Dante  be  ours,  since  he  consigns  among  the 
Heretics,  in  Circle  VI  of  his  Inferno,  Pope  Anastasius  II? 
Him  he  enclosed  in  a  tomb  bearing  the  inscription :  "  I  hold 
Pope  Anastasius,  who  was  drawn  from  the  right  way  by 
Photinus  '  (Inf.  XI,  89.)  To  hold  now  that  a  pope  is  a 
heretic  strikes  at  the  very  foundation  of  the  constitution  of 
the  Church  which  has  the  guarantee  of  Christ  for  inerrancy 
of  magisterial  authority.  Furthermore,  Dante  was  condemned 
to  pay  a  heavy  fine  and  to  be  perpetually  excluded  from  any 
political  office  at  Florence  and  to  the  stake  if  he  returned  to 
that  city,  because,  among  other  charges  brought  against  him, 
it  was  said  that  he  had  manifested  hostility  to  the  Church. 
His  denunciation  of  the  ecclesiastical  abuses  of  his  times  took 
on  greater  vehemence  after  his  banishment.  In  his  Divine 
Comedy,  cradled  into  immortal  poetry  by  the  injustice  of  his 
exile,  he  passes  judgment  upon  several  contemporary  popes  by 
assigning  them  to  Purgatory  and  Hell. 

In  Purgatorio  Pope  Hadrian  V  is  seen  among  the  Avaricious, 
Pope  Martin  IV  among  the  Gluttonous ;  and  among  the  Neu- 
trals in  Outer-Hell  Celestine  is  recognized  by  the  majority  of 
modern  interpreters.  In  the  Inferno  proper,  among  the 
Simoniacs  is  seen  Pope  Nicholas  III,  who  prophesies  that  to 


4 


DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 


the  same  infernal  circle  will  come  his  successors  Boniface  VIII 
and  Clement  V. 

However  much  these  facts  may  seem  to  imply  either  the 
deflection  of  Dante  from  the  teachings  of  the  Church  or  his 
disregard  of  her  clergy,  his  theological  attitude,  as  revealed 
by  his  writings  and  life,  is  wholly  orthodox.  The  conviction 
is  expressed  by  England's  foremost  Dantean  scholar,  Dr. 
Moore,  a  non-Catholic,  that  "  there  is  no  trace  in  Dante's  writ- 
ings of  doubt  or  dissatisfaction  respecting  any  part  of  the 
teaching  of  the  Church,  in  matters  of  doctrine  authoritatively 
laid  down."  This  also  expresses  the  thought  held  by  such 
well-known  Dantean  authorities,  as  Scartazzini,  Vernon, 
Fletcher,  Dinsmore,  Grandgent.  All  of  these  declare  that  he 
is  essentially  Catholic  in  both  his  private  and  literary  life,  and 
they  look  upon  his  Divine  Comedy  as  a  poetical  exposition  of 
Catholic  philosophy  and  theology — a  poem  that  is,  in  the  words 
of  Carlyle,  "  a  great  supernatural  world-cathedral  piled  up 
there,  stern,  solemn,  awful." 

Nothing  was  further  from  Dante's  mind  than  to  teach  heresy. 
An  illuminating  insight  into  his  characteristic  attitude  toward 
the  doctrine  of  the  Church  is  furnished  by  an  episode  following 
an  interview  with  Piccarda,  in  the  Heaven  of  the  Moon,  who 
leaves  the  poet  entangled  in  two  perplexities.  Why  should 
nuns,  forcibly  torn  from  their  convents  for  marriage,  receive 
from  Divine  Justice  a  lesser  degree  of  reward  than  would  have 
been  theirs  if  they  had  persevered  in  their  vows  ?  And  if  the 
Elect  are  found  in  the  different  planets,  does  that  imaginary 
fact  confirm  the  theory  of  Plato  who  held  that  the  souls,  in 
order  to  inform  human  bodies,  come  from  the  planets  con- 
natural with  them  and  return  thereto? 

Dante  is  so  fearful  that  heresy  may  infect  his  readers  that 
he  proceeds  at  once,  through  Beatrice,  to  answer  the  second 
question  first,  because  lit  contains  a  pernicious  theological 
error,  "  quella  che  piu  ha  de  felle  "  (Par.  IV,  28).  It  is 
the  same  question  which  later  brought  Botticelli's  famous 
picture  of  the  Assumption  under  ecclesiastical  suspicion.  I  am 
not  here  concerned  with  the  answer  given  by  Dante  through 
Beatrice  that  the  Empyrean,  the  abode  of  God  and  the  Angels, 
is  the  only  true  Paradise  and  that  the  Nine  Heavens  of  the 
planets  are  only  poetic  devices  employed  to  represent  the  vary- 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES. 


5 


ing  degrees  of  merit  of  the  Saints  in  the  true  Heaven.  What 
I  do  wish  to  stress  is  the  fact  that  Dante  sees  heresy  in  the 
Platonic  theory  of  the  preexistence  of  the  soul  and  the  return 
of  it  to  the  planet  from  which  it  is  supposed  to  have  come — a 
heresy  fatal  to  free  will  and  morality.  At  once  he  directs  his 
thought  to  the  explanation  of  the  baneful  doctrine,  leaving 
for  later  consideration  the  less  dangerous  question  concerning 
Divine  Justice.  This  characteristic  disposition  toward  ortho- 
doxy upon  the  part  of  Dante  is  further  confirmed  by  his  words 
in  which  the  necessity  of  faith  is  declared : 

Insensate  he  who  thinks  with  mortal  ken 

To  pierce  Infinitude  which  doth  enfold 

Three  persons  in  one  substance.     Seek  not  then, 

O  mortal  race,  for  reasons,  but  believe 

And  be  content,  for  had  all  been  seen, 

No  need  there  was  for  Mary  to  conceive.     (Purg.  Ill,  34) 

Disbelief  in  immortality  is  branded  by  Dante  as  "  the  most 
senseless,  vile,  and  harmful  amongst  bestialities"  (Convito 
II.  9).  He  teaches  the  primacy  of  the  Pope  not  only  of 
honor  but  also  of  jurisdiction :  "  You  have  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New  and  the  Pastor  of  the  Church  "to  guide  you.  Let 
this  suffice  for  your  salvation  "  (Par.  V.  j6).  He  declares  that 
Heaven  ratifies  the  legislative  authority  of  the  Church.  Mani- 
fred,  under  excommunication  because  of  his  seizure  of  Sicily, 
fief  of  the  Holy  See,  dies  making  an  act  of  perfect  contrition. 
Saved  from  eternal  damnation  he  must  remain  in  Ante  Pur- 
gatorio  before  beginning  his  purgatorial  suffering,  thirty  times 
as  long  as  the  period  of  his  contumacy,  for  the  law  of  Heaven 
giving  sanction  to  the  Church's  censures  is,  according  to  Mani- 
fred,  that  one  "  who  dies  in  contumacy  of  Holy  Church,  even 
though  at  last  he  repent,  needs  must  stay  outside  this  bank 
thirtyfold  for  all  the  time  that  he  had  lived  in  his  presumption  " 
(Purg.  III.  134). 

To  Dante  the  Church  is  the  "Spouse  of  God"  (Par.  X,  140), 
"  the  Spouse  of  Christ  "  (Par.  XI,  32), ""  the  divine  Chariot  " 
(Purg.  XXX,  16),  "Christ's  army"  (Par.  XII,  37),  "the 
Holy  Church"  (Purg.  Ill,  137),  "which  cannot  in  any  way 
lie  "  (Conv.  II,  4-32). 

To  Dante  the  Pope  is  "  the  successor  of  Peter  "  and  he  truly 
has  "the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven"  (De  Mon.  Ill, 
1,  43-44).     He  is  "  the  Vicar  of  God  "  (De  Mon.  Ill,  1,  42), 


6  DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 

the  "  Vicar  of  Christ  "  (Purg.  XX,  $7),  and  the  instrument  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  (Par.  XI,  98).  He  is  "  the  Supreme  Pastor 
of  the  Church  "  (Par.  V,  77),  "  the  true  guide  of  the  faith  " 
(Par.  VI,  16-21).  For  Dante  the  Pope  never  dies  because 
St.  Peter  in  his  successors  "  still  lives  "  (Par.  VIII,  132). 

Before  expressions  so  full  of  incontestable  faith  as  these, 
one  may  wonder  how  Dante's  orthodoxy  ever  came  under  a 
cloud.  The  first  ground  that  might  lead  one  to  suspect  his 
fidelity  to  the  teachings  of  the  Church  is  furnished  by  episodes 
connected  with  his  book  De  Monarchia.  The  work  indeed  was 
placed  on  the  Index  by  the  Council  of  Trent  (which  was  held 
over  two  centuries  after  Dante's  death),  not  because  of  heresy 
but  from  the  fact  that  it  was  considered  a  dangerous  book  in 
the  hands  of  the  Church's  enemies. 

De  Monarchia  is  a  treatise  in  which  Dante  contends  that  the 
authority  of  the  Church  should  be  restricted  to  purely  spiritual 
matters,  while  the  empire  should  prevail  as  a  universal  mon- 
archy. "  Man  had  need  of  a  twofold  directive  power,"  writes 
Dante,  "  according  to  his  twofold  end,  to  wit,  the  Supreme 
Pontiff  to  lead  the  human  race  to  eternal  life  in  accordance  with 
things  revealed,  and  the  emperor  to  direct  the  human  race  to 
temporal  felicity  in  accordance  with  the  teachings  of  philo- 
sophy." The  Holy  Roman  Empire  he  identifies  with  the 
Roman  empire  established  by  divine  right  as  a  single  supreme 
monarchy  for  the  temporal  happiness  of  mankind.  To  oppose 
that  empire  is  to  oppose  the  will  of  God.  The  papacy  is  equally 
divine,  independent  of  the  empire  in  things  spiritual,  and  its 
sovereignty  cannot  by  divine  law  embrace  the  possession  of 
temporalities.  The  emperor,  however,  may  confer  patrimony 
and  other  things  if  he  keep  his  own  dominion  intact,  and  the 
Pope  may  receive  them  as  needed  to  promote  the  mission  of 
the  Church  ("pro  Ecclesia  proque  Christi  pauperibus " ) . 
But  it  was  wrong  for  the  Emperor  Constantine  to  confer  on 
Pope  Sylvester  and  his  successors  the  sovereignty  of  Italy  and 
of  the  West,  because  he  was  incompetent  to  alienate  the 
'dominion  of  that  with  which  by  divine  right  he  had  been  en- 
trusted. Besides,  the  Pope  had  neither  the  right  nor  the  power 
to  accept  the  Donation,  because  "  it  is  folly  to  suppose  that 
God  wishes  to  be  received  that  which  he  forbids  to  be  offered  " 
(De  Mon.,  Bk.  Ill,  XIII). 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES.  y 

This  so-called  Donation  of  Constantine  Dante  regards  as 
the  beginning  of  the  temporalities  of  the  Church — a  donation, 
he  insists,  that  was  the  curse  of  the  Church  and  the  source  of 
countless  evils.  If  abiding  peace  is  to  come  to  the  world,  the 
Emperor  and  the  Pope  must  keep  to  the  spheres  of  activity 
marked  out  for  them  by  Heaven.  This  independence,  however, 
of  the  spiritual  of  the  temporal  must  not  be  taken  in  a  strict  and 
absolute  sense,  since  Dante  says  in  concluding  his  treatise :  "  In 
certain  matters  the  Roman  Prince  is  subject  to  the  Roman 
Pontiff.  For  that  happiness  which  is  subject  to  mortality,  in  a 
sense  is  ordered  wih  a  view  to  the  happiness  which  shall  not 
taste  death.  Let,  therefore,  Caesar  be  reverent  to  Peter,  as  the 
first-born  son  should  be  reverent  to  his  father,  that  he  may  be 
illuminated  with  the  light  of  his  father's  grace  and  so  may  be 
stronger  to  enlighten  the  world  over  which  he  has  been  placed 
by  Him  alone,  who  is  the  Ruler  of  all  things  spiritual  as  well 
as  temporal." 

A  writer  in  the  Irish  Ecclesiastical  Record  *  contends  that 
Dante's  political  theory  does  not  deny  to  the  Church  the  right 
of  temporal  power  understood  in  its  restricted  and  formal  sense 
to  refer  to  the  Papal  states.  It  does  deny  the  Pope  primacy  in 
temporalities.  But  whatever  may  have  been  Dante's  theory  as 
to  the  separation  of  Church  and  State,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
his  De  Monarchia  is  historically  unsound,  not  only  because 
of  its  claim  that  the  ancient  Roman  Empire  was  established  by 
divine  right  and  that  its  Emperor  received  authority  directly 
from  God  Himself,  but  also  because  of  its  identifying  with  the 
ancient  Empire  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  the  creation  of  the 
Pope,  who  alone  crowned  and  thereby  conferred  the  imperial 
power  upon  a  monarch  after  he  had  taken  an  oath  to  perform 
certain  definite  obligations  both  to  the  Church  and  his  own 
subjects. 

Furthermore  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  De  Monarchia  be- 
came the  source  of  revolutionary  propaganda  against  the 
Church  and  her  right  to  possess  property.  Only  six  years 
after  Dante's  death  Marselius  of  Padua,  who  had  studied  the 
book,  proposed  such  heretical  doctrines  as  these :  "  The  Roman 
Pontiff  has  no  power  over  any  man  except  with  the  permission 

1  Dante's  Ideal  of  Church  and  Empire,  June,  1891,  by  the  Rev.  J.  F.  Hogan. 


3  DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 

of  the  emperor,  while  the  emperor  has  power  over  the  pope  and 
the  general  council.  The  pontiff  can  act  only  as  an  authorized 
agent  of  the  Roman  people:  all  the  goods  of  the  Church  belong 
by  right  to  Caesar/'  2  Is  it  any  wonder,  then,  that  the  book  was 
placed  on  the  Index,  seeing  that  it  provided  ammunition  against 
the  Church? 

While  this  explanation  leaves  unclouded  Dante's  orthodoxy, 
as  far  as  the  placing  of  his  book  on  the  Index  is  concerned,  the 
fact  remains  that  in  condemning  a  pope  for  heresy  Dante  runs 
counter  to  historical  evidence.  He  seems  to  have  confused  Pope 
Anastasius  II  with  his  namesake  and  contemporary,  the  Em- 
peror Anastasius  I,  who  is  said  to  have  been  led  into  heresy  by 
Photinus,  Bishop  of  Sirmium.  The  latter  taught  that  Christ 
had  a  beginning  in  Mary ;  therefore,  that  he  was  a  mere  man ; 
that  the  Word  had  no  hypostasis  but  was  the  quasi-energy  of 
the  Father.  But  if  Dante  made  the  historical  blunder  of,  con- 
founding an  emperor  with  a  pope  of  the  same  name,  sub- 
jectively is  he  not  culpable  for  condemning  a  Roman  Pontiff 
for  heresy  ? 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  poet  believed  in  the  general  doc- 
trine of  the  infallibility  of  the  Church,  "  which  cannot  in  any 
way  lie"  (Conv.  II,  4,  32;  cf.  Par.  VI,  16-21).  If  he  did  not 
hold  that  the  pope,  speaking  ex  cathedra,  is  the  organ  of  in- 
fallibility, he  was  still  within  his  rights  as  a  true  Catholic,  since 
there  was  no  obligation  to  believe  in  that  doctrine  until  its 
definition  by  the  Vatican  Council,  1870. 

II. 

Dante's  Critical  Attitude  Toward  the  Clergy. 

Coming  now  to  the  consideration  of  Dante's  attitude  toward 
the  clergy  contemporary  with  him  or  nearly  so,  it  may  be 
said  in  general  that,  while  he  shows  himself  to  be  animated  by 
the  highest  reverence  for  the  priesthood  and  the  greatest  re- 
spect for  its  members  who  are  true  to  their  vocation,  his 
attitude  is  one  of  unremitting  protest  against  the  vanity  of 
religious  orders  and  of  most  passionate  reproaches  for  sup- 
posed simony  against  the  clergy,  including  and  especially  af- 
fecting the  popes.     In  each  of  the  three  parts  of  the  Divine 

2  Cath.  Encyc,  IX,  721. 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES.  q 

Comedy  he  shows  himself  an  unsparing  censor  of  such 
abuses.  His  expressions,  however,  burning  with  shame  and 
sorrow  or  pointed  with  ridicule  and  satire,  are  the  expressions 
of  a  son  whose  heart  is  scourged,  but  not  of  a  mocker  who 
rejoices — and  they  are  a  high  tribute  to  the  religious  life,  a 
strong  defence  of  the  priesthood  and  papacy ;  for  his  passion- 
ate words  spring  from  an  ideal  so  exalted  in  conception  that 
what  appears  a  mote  in  a  secular  he  sees  to  be  a  beam  in  a 
person  consecrated  to  God. 

To  indicate  the  extent  of  avarice  in  the  clergy  of  his  day, 
Dante,  in  the  fourth  circle  of  his  Inferno,  the  most  populous 
circle  of  all  his  underworld,  addresses  Virgil :  "  My  master, 
now  show  me  what  people  are  these  and  whether  all  those 
tonsured  on  our  left  (misers)  were  of  the  clergy.  And  he  to 
me :  '  These  were  priests  that  have  not  hairy  covering  on  their 
heads  and  popes  and  cardinals,  in  whom  avarice  does  its  ut- 
most '  "  (Inf.  VII,  37). 

Dante  makes  St.  Bonaventure  condemn  the  Franciscans, 
and  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  condemn  the  Dominicans  for  their 
degeneracy.  The  household  of  St.  Francis  "  who  marched 
straight  with  feet  in  his  footprints,  hath  turned  round " 
(XII,  115).  The  Dominicans  who  maintain  the  pristine  ob- 
servances of  their  holy  founder  are  "  so  few  that  a  little  cloth 
would  make  their  cowls  ".  Speaking  of  St.  Dominic's  dis- 
ciples, the  Angelic  Doctor  says: 

But  now  his  flock  so  eagerly  demands 

New  food  that  it,  of  sheer  necessity, 

In  pastures  widely  different  strays  and  stands. 

And  as  the  more  his  sheep  thus  scattered  lie, 

And  further  from  him  wander  to  and  fro, 

With  less  milk  come  they  for  the  fold's  supply. 

Some  are  there  who,  in  fear  of  that  loss,  go 

Back  to  their  shepherd,  but  so  few  they  be 

That  little  cloth  would  make  their  cowls,  I  trow. 

Now  if  my  words  are  not  obscure  to  thee, 

If  thine  own  ears  have  been  to  learn  intent, 

If  what  I  said  thou  call'st  to  memory, 

In  part  at  least  thy  wish  shall  find  content ; 

For  thou  shalt  see  the  plant  which  thus  decays, 

Shall  see  what  he,  the  leather-girded,  meant 

By  "well  he  fattens  who  ne'er  vainly  strays".     (Par.  XI,  124) 

Many  modern  interpreters  understood  these  words  to  refer 
to  the  moral  degeneracy  of  the  Dominicans,  but  the  passage 
may  be  more  widely  interpreted  as  their  deflection  from  their 


I0  DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 

doctrinal  mission,  the  study  of  Sacred  Scripture,  of  the  Fathers, 
and  of  theology,  to  concentrate  on  the  study  of  philosophy  and 
secular  science. 

Nor  do  the  Benedictines  escape  Dante's  denunciation.     St 
Benedict  (Par.  XXII,  76)  is  made  to  lament  their  degeneracy: 

That  great  rule  of  mine 
But  lives  to  waste  the  paper  where  it  lies. 
The  walls  which  once  were  as  an  abbey's  shrine 
Are  made  as  dens  of  robbers,  and  the  hoods 
Are  sacks  filled  full  with  the  flour  of  thoughts  malign, 
And  even  usury  not  so  far  intrudes 
Against  God's  pleasure,  as  those  fruits  unjust 
Which  fill  the  monks'  hearts  with  such  wanton  moods. 
For  what  the  Church  doth  hold,  she  holds  in  trust 
For  those  who  in  God's  name  ask  charity 
Not  for  a  kinsman  or  some  baser  lust.3     (Par.  XXII,  74) 

This  scornful  hyperbole  shows  at  least  that  the  rule  of  the 
founder  of  the  order  was  waste  paper,  that  the  goods  of  the 
monastery  were  given  to  the  kindred  of  the  monks  or  used 
for  some  other  vanity  or  worldliness.  Many  of  the  evils 
, complained  of  were  due  to  the  common  practice  of  Com- 
mendam,  the  placing  over  a  monastery,  even  against  the  will 
of  the  monks,  of  an  abbot  who  might  be  a  prelate  or  a  layman. 
Often  the  youngest  son  of  a  nobleman,  or  a  mere  military 
retainer  was  so  rewarded  for  personal  services.  It  can 
readily  be  seen  that  in  some  of  these  cases  the  abbot  had  only 
one  thought,  that  of  enriching  himself  from  the  revenues  of 
the  monks.  The  consequence  was  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
ruin  of  the  monastery.  If  he  assumed  active  command  of 
the  religious,  his  rule  was  apt  to  be  worldly,  if  not  tyrannical ; 
and  the  result  could  only  be  a  shirking,  if  not  an  ignoring,  of 
the  rules  formulated  by  the  founder  of  the  community.  Of 
course  this  evil  was  not  unknown  to  Dante.  Referring  to  the 
common  practice  of  putting  into  the  sanctuary  or  into  the 
monk's  cells  those  men  who  had  no  aptitude  or  vocation  for 
the  sacred  life,  he  says :  "  Ye  perversely  to  religion  strain  him 
who  was  born  to  gird  on  him  the  sword"    (Par.  VII,   151), 

3  A  serious  thinker  must  deplore  the  tendency  of  some  modern  editors  to 
read  into  Dante's  expressions  a  meaning  more  base  than  the  words  themselves 
may  signify.  An  example  is  in  the  case  of  the  editor  of  Paradiso  (Temple 
Classics,  p.  279),  who,  while  he  gives  a  literal  translation  of  the  phrase,  "  non 
di  parenti  ne  d'altro  piu  brutto  "  (not  unto  kindred  or  other  filthier  thing),  in- 
terprets the  last  words  to  mean  "  paramours  ".  So,  too,  Vernon  in  his  Readings 
on  the  Paradiso,  vol.  II,  p.  209. 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES.  j  x 

and  he  gives  us  a  striking  instance  (Purg.  XVIII,  12 1 )  which 
tells  of  the  appointment  by  Alberto  della  Scala,  Lord  of 
Verona,  of  his  illegitimate  son,  "  deformed  in  body  and  mind 
and  basely  born  "  to  the  abbacy  of  San  Zeno,  an  appointment 
which  is  to  bring  with  it  eternal  damnation  for  him  who 
committed  this  desecration. 

III. 

Dante's  Censure  of  Popes. 
If  Dante  was  so  severe  a  censor  of  the  lives  of  the  inferior 
clergy  and  of  members  of  religious  orders,  his  invectives 
against  some  of  the  popes  of  his  day  are  tense  with  a  signi- 
ficance that  shows  the  firmness  of  his  conception  that  a  stain 
on  the  white  robe,  "  the  great  mantle  "  of  a  pope,  is  more  to  be 
deplored  than  a  spot  on  him  who  dresses  in  less  conspicuous 
garments.  Dante  makes  St.  Peter  Damian  speak  with  bitter 
sarcasm  in  contrasting  the  poverty  and  asceticism  of  SS.  Peter 
and  Paul  with  the  pomp  and  obesity  of  the  dignitaries  of 
the  Pontifical  Court. 

Cephas  and  he,  the  Spirit's  vessel  true 

And  chosen,  barefoot  went  and  mortified, 

And  ate  what  food  chance  hostile  to  them  threw. 

Our  modern  shepherds  need  on  either  side 

An  arm  to  lead  them  and  strong  back  to  bear — 

So  weighty  they ! — and  on  their  train  to  guide : 

And  with  their  palfreys  they  their  mantle  share 

And  so  two  beasts  go  underneath  one  skin.     (Par.  XXI,  127) 

That  reproach  seems  to  have  been  suggested  by  the  words 
of  St.  Bernard :  "  Never  have  men  told  that  Peter  walked 
adorned  with  precious  stones  or  vestments  of  silk  or  under  a 
gilded  canopy  or  mounted  on  a  white  horse  or  companied  by 
soldiers  or  surrounded  by  noisily  busy  servitors.  He  thought 
he  needed  nothing  of  that  sort  to  fulfil  the  saving  command : 
if  thou  lovest  me,  feed  my  lambs."  4 

There  are  certainly  three  popes  whom  Dante,  for  political 
reasons,  or  because  he  was  the  victim  of  misinformation,  places 
in  the  Inferno.  A  fourth  is  to  be  added  if,  in  that  realm  called 
Outer-Hell  where  are  punished  those  who  tried  to  be  absolutely 
netural  by  doing  no  great  evil  actively,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
by  refusing  to  commit  themselves  to  the  responsibilities  of  life 

4  De  Consid.,  IV,  3. 


12  DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 

— if  in  that  realm  "  the  spirit  of  him  who  from  cowardice  made 
the  great  refusal  "  is  to  be  identified  as  Pope  Celestine  V,  then 
Dante  has  placed  in  the  underworld  the  saintly  hermit  Pietro 
di  Murrhone,  unanimously  called  by  the  conclave  of  Perugia, 
when  he  was  a  nonagenarian,  to  succeed  Nicholas  IV  in  the 
Chair  of  Peter  which  had  been  vacant  for  two  years  and 
four  months.  After  a  few  months  the  cares  of  office  weighed 
so  heavily  upon  the  perplexed  old  man,  yearning  for  his 
mountain  cave,  that  he  determined  to  resign.  But  such  an  act 
was  so  unprecedented  that  the  question  was  raised  "  Could 
a  pope  resign  ?"  and  "  Who  had  the  power  to  accept  his 
resignation  ?  "  The  matter  was  settled  by  Celestine's  follow- 
ing the  counsel  of  Cardinal  Gaetani  to  issue  before  or  simul- 
taneously with  his  abdication  a  decree  legalizing  a  papal 
resignation  and  making  the  College  of  Cardinals  competent  to 
accept  it.  To  Dante,  who  taught  that  neither  pope  nor  em- 
peror could  legally  resign,  the  act  of  Celestine  V  in  vacating 
the  apostolic  see  was  a  crime  of  great  cowardice. 

If  the  shade  "  of  him  who,  from  cowardice,  made  the  great 
refusal  "  is  to  be  recognized  as  that  of  Celestine  V,  then 
Dante's  judgment  is  in  opposition  to  that  of  the  Church,  which 
in  13 13  canonized  this  hermit  pope!  An  explanation  of  how 
the  Catholic  poet  could  still  consign  to  Outer-Hell  one  who 
had  received  saintship  from  the  Church  is  offered  by  the 
assumption  that,  though  the  finishing  touches  were  not  given 
to  the  Inferno  until  after  20  April,  13 14,  the  date  of  the  death 
of  Pope  Clement  V,  to  which  allusion  is  made  in  Inf.  XIX, 
76-87,  the  earlier  part  of  the  poem  including  chapter  III 
which  contains  the  episode  supposed  to  refer  to  Celestine,  was 
completed  before  the  canonization  of  the  latter;  or  it  may  be 
said  that  Dante,  the  exile,  did  not  know  of  the  canonization, 
and  that  he  believed  the  abdication  of  Celestine  was  null  and 
void  since  it  was  brought  to  pass,  as  he  thought,  by  the 
designing  influence  of  Cardinal  Gaetani  who,  under  the  name 
of  Boniface  VIII,  succeeded  to  the  papal  throne. 

Dante  indeed  regarded  Boniface  as  an  anti-pope  and  of  all 
popes  he  is  the  object  of  the  poet's  most  vituperative  passion. 
He  represents  even  St.  Peter  as  becoming  red  with  anger 
when  he  denounced  him  "  who  on  earth  usurpeth  now  my 
seat " ;  and  the  vast  concourse  of  saints  is  exhibited  as  chang- 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES. 


13 


ing  color  and   reddening  with  shame  in  sympathy  with  the 
words  of  the  Prince  of  the  Apostles : 

And  then  I  heard  a  voice,  "  No  more  admire 

That  thus  so  changed  in  hue  thine  eyes  I  meet. 

For  as  I  speak,  all  those  shall  change  attire. 

He  who  on  earth  usurpeth  now  my  seat, 

My  seat,  my  seat,  I  say,  which  to  the  eye 

Of  God's  dear  Son  is  vacant  at  His  feet, 

He  of  my  burial  place  has  made  a  stye 

Of  blood  and  filth  wherein  the  evil  one 

Who  fell  from  heaven,  himself  doth  satisfy".     (Par.  XXVII,  19) 

Nine  times  does  Dante  refer  to  Boniface,  but  only  to 
stigmatize  him  with  the  greater  intensity.  Boniface  is  "  he 
who  sits  and  goes  astray  "  (Par.  XII,  90)  ;  he  is  "  the  prince 
of  the  New  Pharisees  "  (Par.  XXVII,  85)  ;  "  he  is  no  shepherd 
but  a  wolf"  (Par.  IX,  132).  And  the  poet  anticipating  the 
death  of  Boniface  by  three  years  places  him  in  the  Hell  of  the 
Simoniacs  and  addresses  him  through  the  mouth  of  Nicholas 
III  with  taunting  words  for  his  alleged  avarice  and  for  the 
supposed  fraud  by  which  he  obtained  the  papacy : 

And  stand'st  thou  there  upright, 
Stand'st  thou  already  here,  O  Boniface? 
By  many  years  my  scroll  hath  erred  from  right. 
Has  that  ill  gain  so  soon  lost  all  its  grace 
For  which  thou  did'st  not  fear  by  fraud  to  seize, 
The  beauteous  bride  and  work  her  foul  disgrace?    (Inf.  XIX,  153) 

The  character  of  Boniface  VIII  as  painted  by  Dante  is 
diametrically  opposed  to  that  which  Cardinal  Wiseman  vindi- 
cates in  his  Historical  Essays.  To  the  English  churchman 
Boniface  is  a  pontiff  "  who  devoted  the  energies  of  a  great 
mind,  cultured  by  profound  learning  and  nurtured  by  long 
experience  in  the  most  delicate  ecclesiastical  affairs,  to  the 
attainment  of  a  truly  noble  end,  and  who  throughout  his 
career  displayed  many  great  virtues  and  could  plead  in  ex- 
tenuation of  his  faults  the  convulsed  state  of  public  affairs, 
the  rudeness  of  his  times  and  the  faithless,  violent  character 
of  many  among  those  with  whom  he  had  to  deal.  These  cir- 
cumstances, working  upon  a  mind  naturally  upright  and  in- 
flexible, led  to  a  sternness  of  manner  and  a  severity  of  conduct 
which,  when  viewed  through  the  feelings  of  modern  times, 
may  appear  extreme  and  almost  unjustifiable.  But  after 
searching  through  the  pages  of  his  most  violent  historians,  we 


14 


DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 


are  satisfied  that  that  is  the  only  point  on  which  even  a  plausible 
charge  can  be  brought  against  him." 

Dante's  estimate  of  Boniface's  character  was  undoubtedly 
the  result  in  great  measure  of  his  being  the  victim  of  a  loose 
oral  tradition  or  erroneous  written  articles,  the  product  of  an 
age  wherein  historical  criticism  had  not  yet  developed.  The 
books  which  give  information  as  to  the  events  of  Dante's  time 
are:  the  Chronicles  of  Salimbene  di  Adamo,  a  Franciscan  of 
Parma;  the  Memoriale  Potestatum  by  an  anonymous  brother 
of  a  religious  order;  The  Annals  and  Church  History  of 
Tolomeo  da  Lucca,  the  Dominican  Bishop  of  Torcello ;  the 
Chronicle  of  Pipino  da  Bologna,  a  Dominican,  the  Chronicle 
by  a  Franciscan  of  Erfurt  and,  above  all  others,  the  Chronicles 
of  Giovanni  Villani  and  Ricordano  Malespini.  To  these  must 
be  added  the  defamatory  booklets  of  the  Colonnese  Cardinals, 
notorious  for  their  rebellious  conduct  to  the  Holy  See.  All 
these  works  are  such  a  mass  of  falsehoods  and  such  a  tissue  of 
slanders  and  accusations,  especially  against  Boniface  VIII, 
Nicholas  III,  and  Clement  V,  that  it  is  no  wonder  that  Dante, 
receiving  as  true  these  tales  as  they  came  from  the  pen  or  lips 
of  brothers,  bishops,  and  even  cardinals,  should  have  consigned 
those  popes  to  the  Inferno.  Furthermore  Dante's  judgment  as 
to  the  character  of  Boniface  must  have  been  influenced  by  the 
shameful  charges  of  heresy,  blasphemy,  and  immorality 
brought  after  his  death,  against  the  memory  of  Boniface  by 
Philip  the  Fair,  "the  bane  of  France"  (Purg.  VII,  109), 
"the  new  Pilate"  (Purg.  XX,  91).  These  charges  were 
actually  considered  by  a  conclave  held  at  Avignon  in  13 13  and, 
though  the  process  ended  abruptly  with  the  memory  of  Boni- 
face purged  of  all  adverse  charges,  the  calumnies  were  never 
wholly  dissipated.  In  this  case,  as  in  so  many  others,  the  lie 
had  run  over  the  earth  while  Truth  was  getting  ready  to 
pursue  it. 

As  affecting  the  poet's  attitude  toward  Boniface,  all  these 
sources  of  misinformation  only  added  to  Dante's  antagonism 
against  the  Pope,  for  the  latter's  intervention  in  the  affairs 
of  Florence.  That  act  brought  about  Dante's  exile  and  sub- 
sequent adversity.  The  great  Florentine's  bitter  antagonism 
was  further  aroused  by  the  political  principles  and  policy  of 
Boniface.     As   a    Ghibelline   favoring   a   wide   separation   of 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES, 


15 


Church  and  State,  Dante  must  have  viewed  with  deep  chagrin 
the  scenes  connected  with  the  consecration  and  coronation  of 
Boniface,  which  showed  "  King  Charles  II  of  Naples  and  his 
son  Charles  Martel,  titular  king  and  claimant  of  Hungary, 
holding  the  reins  of  his  gorgeously  accoutred  snow-white 
palfrey  as  he  proceeded  on  his  way  to  St.  John  Lateran  and 
later,  with  their  crowns  upon  their  heads,  serving  the  Pope 
with  the  first  few  dishes  at  table  before  taking  their  places 
amongst  the  cardinals.' ' 5 

The  chagrin  of  the  author  of  De  Monarchia  must  have 
turned  to  fierce  resentment  as  he  read  the  famous  Bull  of 
Boniface,  "Ausculta  Fili  ",  which  gave  occasion  for  the  state- 
ment that  the  Pope  claimed  supremacy  over  kings,  even  in 
civil  matters.  Finally  there  came,  we  believe,  to  arouse  Dante's 
passion  to  the  highest  pitch,  the  widely-circulated  forged  Bull 
"  Deum  time  ",  addressed  to  Philip,  King  of  France,  wherein 
are  contained  the  arrogant  words:  "  Scire  te  volumus  quod  in 
spiritualibus  et  temporalibus  nobis  subes  " — we  wish  thee  to 
know  that  thou  art  our  subject  in  spiritual  and  temporal 
matters. 

Can  we  expect  that  a  man  of  Dante's  passionate  nature  would 
ever  forget  all  sense  of  his  own  injuries  brought  about  by 
Boniface  and  even  ignore  all  the  vituperations  uttered  against 
him;  and  then  suddenly  raise  his  voice  in  defence  of  this  Pope 
whom  he  had  treated  even  as  an  usurper?  Yet  that  incon- 
sistency is  the  very  thing  that  Dante  displayed  when  he  saw 
that  Boniface  had  been  seized  at  Anagni  by  emissaries  of 
Philip,  the  French  King,  and  had  been  treated  with  gross 
indignities.  At  once,  to  him,  Boniface  ceased  to  be  a  usurper 
and  became  a  true  pope,  the  Vicar  of  Christ!  In  him  a 
prisoner,  Christ  Himself  he  saw,  captive,  suffering  a  renewal 
of  His  Passion : 

In  Alagna  see  the  fleur-de-lys, 
Christ,  in  His  Vicar,  captive  to  the  foe, 
Him  once  again  as  mocked  and  scorned  I  see. 
I  see  once  more  the  vinegar  and  gall, 
And  slain  between  new  robbers  hangeth  He.     (Purg.  XX,  84) 

Consigned  also  to  the  circle  of  the  Simoniacs  is  Clement  V, 
the  second  pope  after  Boniface  VIII.     Though  not  mentioned 

5  Cath.  Encyc,  II,  662. 


!g  DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 

by  name,  he  is  referred  to  as  "  the  lawless  shepherd  of  uglier 
deeds"  (Inf.  XIX,  82) ,  "a  new  Jason"  (Inf.  XIX,  85),  the 
allusion  being  to  Jason  (II  Mace.  IV,  7),  who  bought  the 
office  of  the  high  priesthood.  In  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  the 
Church,  especially  under  Clement  V,  is  represented  as  a  shame- 
less woman,  the  recipient  of  both  caresses  and  blows  from  a 
giant  (Philip  the  Fair).  Referring  to  Clement  V,  a  Gascon, 
and  John  XXII,  a  native  of  Cahors,  St.  Peter  in  the  Heaven  of 
the  Fixed  Stars  says  of  them :  "  Cahorsines  and  Gascons  make 
ready  to  drink  our  blood"  (Par.  XXVIII,  58).  The  last 
words  spoken  by  Beatrice  denounce  the  hypocrisy  of  Pope 
Clement  and  predicts  his  fearful  fate  in  the  Inferno  (Par. 
XXX,  142). 

Dante's  indignation  against  Clement  was  fed  by  his  tempera- 
mental Italian  soul  roused  to  fury  against  the  French  for  the 
removal  of  the  Holy  See  from  Rome  to  Avignon  and  for  the 
policy  of  King  Philip  the  Fair  and  his  baneful  influence  upon 
the  Pope.  It  was  a  time  when  the  Church  was  in  the  gravest 
danger,  not  only  from  the  anarchic  conditions,  especially  in 
Italy,  but  also  from  the  disturbances  following  the  short  terms 
of  the  popes  and  the  vacancies — some  extending  nearly  three 
years — in  the  Apostolic  See.  One  man  of  Dante's  day,  Car- 
dinal Matteo  Orsini,  had  seen  thirteen  popes.  It  was  a  time 
wherr  adverse  criticism  of  rulers,  spiritual  and  temporal,  as- 
sumed a  character  of  odium  the  publicity  of  which  modern 
life  cannot  well  understand.  Even  so-called  saintly  persons 
did  not  hesitate  to  use  abusive  language  to  those  considered 
unworthy  of  their  high  civic  or  religious  offices.  The  print- 
ing press  had  not  yet  been  invented  to  spread  these  scandals; 
but  to  have  been  silent  in  the  presence  of  these  shameful 
abuses  in  the  Church  would  have  been  considered  a  greater 
scandal  than  to  have  made  them  known.  Proclaiming  them, 
even  to  the  extent  of  what  would  now  constitute  libel,  was 
considered  commendable  by  the  medievalists,  who  acted  upon 
the  principle  that  an  abuse  made  known  can  be  cured,  but  if 
allowed  to  remain  hidden  it  may  appear  to  be  tolerated  or 
protected,  and  this  last  evil  would  be  worse  than  the  first. 
Bearing  these  things  in  mind  and  knowing,  on  the  one  hand, 
Dante's  disdain  for  the  French  and,  on  the  other,  his  fiery 
zeal  for  an  unblemished  papacy  and  a  Holy  Church,  we  have 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES. 


17 


an  explanation  of  his  vehement  treatment  of  the  weak  and 
vacillating  Clement  V  who,  unfortunately  for  the  good  of  the 
Church,  was  strongly  dominated  by  Philip  the  Fair. 

Dante,  as  we  said  before,  places  in  the  Inferno  Nicholas  III, 
"  an  ecclesiastically  minded  pontiff  of  great  diplomatic  ability 
and,  if  we  except  his  acts  of  nepotism,  of  unblemished  reputa- 
tion." 6  His  nepotism  loses  the  feature  of  excessiveness  if  we 
remember  that  not  he  but  his  father  was  the  founder  of  the 
great  power  which  was  offensive  to  Dante  for  political  reasons. 
Under  Gregory  IX  and  Innocent  IV,  Nicholas's  father,  Matteo 
Orsini  Rosso,  a  Roman  senator  and  military  leader,  had  saved 
Rome  to  the  papacy.  He  was  generously  rewarded  for  his 
services,  and  took  care  to  promote  the  fortunes  of  his  family, 
which  soon  numbered  eight  or  nine  branches,  some  of  which 
even  formed  connexions  with  the  nobility.  Several  nephews 
of  this  wealthy  Orsini  family,  acknowledged  by  all  to  have 
been  men  conspicuous  for  executive  talent  or  military  valor, 
were  appointed  by  Nicholas  to  honorable  and  lucrative  posi- 
tions, and  that  act  translated  by  the  unfriendly  into  terms  of 
avarice,  appears  to  be  the  only  basis  for  the  evil  expressed 
in  the  confession  which  the  poet  draws  from  the  mouth  of 
Nicholas.  "Verily,  I  was  a  son  of  the  She-bear  (Orsini), 
so  eager  to  advance  the  whelps  that  I  pursed  wealth  above  and 
here  put  myself  in  a  pocket  of  fire  "  ( Inf.  XIX,  70) . 

The  other  accusation  brought  by  Dante  against  the  character 
of  Nicholas  III  was  the  charge  that,  for  a  monetary  consider- 
ation received  from  the  Greek  emperor,  who  was  eager  to  lessen 
the  power  of  Charles  of  Anjou,  the  Pope  conspired  against 
the  latter  to  deprive  him  of  Sicily.  Military  operations  in  Sicily 
soon  followed,  executed,  it  was  said,  with  the  countenance  and 
contrivance  of  Nicholas.  Eventually  the  house  of  Anjou  lost 
Sicily  through  the  insurrection  of  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  which 
occurred  two  years  after  the  death  of  Nicholas,  and  King 
Peter  of  Aragon,  supposed  to  be  a  party  to  the  alleged  con- 
spiracy, seized  the  throne.  It  is  in  reference  to  this  supposed 
conspiracy  that  Dante  addresses  the  spirit  of  Nicholas  suffering 
among  the  Simoniacs :  "  Therefore  stay  thou  here,  for  thou 
art  justly  punished  and  keep  well  the  ill-got  money  which 
against  Charles  made  thee  bold"   (Inf.  XIX,  97). 

6  Cath.  Encyc,  XI,  57. 


j8  DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 

Historical  research  7  shows  that  the  charge  is  a  slander 
against  the  memory  of  Nicholas.  The  several  incidents,  how- 
ever, which  gave  occasion  to  the  report  of  the  supposed  con- 
spiracy, contain  a  certain  semblance  of  truth.  It  was  said,  for 
instance,  that  John  of  Procida,  disguised  as  a  Franciscan,  had 
come  to  Soriano  to  interest  Nicholas  in  the  affairs  of  Sicily. 
He  is  said  to  have  acted  as  an  intermediary  between  the  Pope 
and  King  Peter  of  Aragon,  offering  the  latter  the  throne  of 
Sicily,  which  was  then  held  by  Charles  of  Anjou.  There  is 
no  historical  evidence  that  such  an  offer  had  been  made.  On 
the  other  hand  there  is  no  doubt  that  Procida  was  an  inter- 
mediary between  Peter  III  and  the  Sicilian  nobles,  and  that 
Procida  was  in  attendance  on  the  Pope  during  his  illness. 
Furthermore,  there  is  evidence  that  both  the  Pope  and  Procida 
were  together  at  Soriano  in  1279,  at  which  time  a  chapter  of 
the  Franciscans  occurred  there. 

The  first  writer  to  give  the  substance  of  the  alleged  con- 
spiracy as  it  affected  Nicholas  III,  was  the  Franciscan  Guelf 
Brother  Salimbene,  who  in  1289,  seven  years  after  the  Sicilian 
Vespers,  affirmed  that  Nicholas  III,  out  of  hatred  for  Charles 
of  Anjou,  had  given  Sicily  to  Peter  III.  In  1330  some  de- 
tails were  added  to  the  statement  by  the  Dominican  Pipino 
da  Bologna  and  about  the  same  time  the  tale  was  further 
embellished  with  rich  detail  by  Giovanni  Villani.  In  the 
second  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  authors  of  the 
Leggenda  di  Giovanni  di  Procida  put  forth  what  they  pre- 
tended was  the  actual  letter  written  by  Nicholas  III  to  Peter 
of  Aragon. 

Dante,  living  in  an  age  when  historical  criticism  was  un- 
developed, accepted  the  tale  as  it  had  been  transmitted  by 
writing  or  as  it  had  been  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth,  afford- 
ing here  an  instance  of  his  unreliability  as  a  historian — a  defect 
that  he  displays  in  many  cases,  notably  that  of  his  slander  of 
Boniface  VIII  in  the  celebrated  episode  of  Guido  de 
Montefeltro.8 

7  See  //  VI  Centenario  Dantesco,  Ravenna,  vol.  IV,  Aug.  191 7,  art.  "  Origine 
delle  Accuse  contro  Niccolo  III  e  Dante",  P.  Fidelo  Savio,  S.J.,  from  which 
most  of  the  facts  here  mentioned  have  been  taken. 

8  See  "  Lunga  promessa  coll'  attender  corto  ",  by  Eduard  Jordan,  in  Bulletin 
It  alien,  Vol.  XVIII. 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES. 


19 


It  may  not  be  beyond  the  bounds  of  truth  to  assume  that  the 
estimate  of  the  character  of  Nicholas  evolved  by  the  imagin- 
ation of  the  populace,  and  shaped  by  the  political  prejudices  of 
that  age,  became  Dante's  view  and  that  the  poet  expended  upon 
the  memory  of  Nicholas  the  resentment  which  he  felt  against 
the  Orsini  family.  To  their  influence  at  Rome  was  due  the  fact 
that  Dante's  ideal  monarch,  Henry  VII  of  Luxemberg,  the 
one  who  was  to  have  realized  the  poet's  hope  for  the  restoration 
of  peace  and  justice,  failed  to  receive  the  imperial  crown  at 
St.  Peter's. 

IV. 
Dante's  Panegyric  of  the  Clergy. 

Condemning  evil  and  showing  the  punishment  drawn  upon 
the  individual  is  only  one  part  of  what  Dante  considers  to  be 
the  divine  mission  of  his  vision  "  to  profit  the  misguided 
world"  (Purg.  XXXII,  103).  He  also  offers  examples  of 
virtue  to  serve  as  a  lamp  to  our  feet  and  a  light  to  our  paths. 
Among  the  models  of  priestly  virtue  signalized  in  the  Paradiso, 
the  poet  presents  for  our  admiration  and  imitation  a  secular 
priest  Sigier,  and  three  members  of  religious  orders — Thomas 
Aquinas,  the  Dominican ;  Bonaventure,  the  Franciscan ;  St. 
Bernard,  the  Cistercian.  Of  the  four  the  last  alone  had  been 
canonized.  Dante's  anticipation  of  the  solemn  apotheosis 
which  the  Church  could  one  day  award  to  Aquinas  and  Bona- 
venture is  in  itself  an  idealistic  tribute  to  their  holiness  of  life. 
On  the  other  hand  his  placing  in  Paradiso  Sigier,  a  priest  of 
doubtful  reputation  for  orthodoxy,  and  the  dedication  to  him 
of  two  tiercets  when  often  a  single  word  is  all  that  is  given 
to  great  philosophers  and  theologians,  has  not  failed  to 
awaken  the  curiosity  and  arouse  the  interest  of  commentators. 

In  the  first  ring  or  crown  of  twelve  Doctors  in  the  Heaven 
of  the  Sun,  with  Albert  the  Great  on  his  right  and  Sigier  on 
his  left,  Thomas  Aquinas  points  out  the  latter: 

He  from  whom  now  turns  to  me  thy  regard, 
Is  of  a  soul  the  light  so  gravely  wise 
It  deemed  the  way  to  death  both  slow  and  hard. 
There  Sigier's  light  eternal  meets  thine  eyes 
Who,  lecturing  in  the  street  that's  named  of  Straw, 
Unpalatable  truth  did  syllogize.     (X,  133) 


2o  DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 

This  Sigier  taught  the  Averrhoistic  form  of  Aristotelianism 
at  the  University  of  Paris  at  the  same  time  that  Aquinas  was 
there  arguing  against  him  and  propounding  Aristotle  Chris- 
tianized. It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  both  professors,  up- 
holding from  different  angles  the  system  of  the  Stagyrite, 
came  under  the  condemnation  of  Stefano  Tempier,  Bishop  of 
Paris,  in  1277,  who,  acting  on  219  propositions,  some  of  which 
were  only  philosophical  doctrines  indifferent  to  religion,  deter- 
mined, by  placing  those  propositions  under  the  ban  of  the 
Inquisition,  to  strike,  not  only  the  Averrhoism  of  Sigier,  but 
also  the  Aristotelianism  of  Thomas,  Following  the  con- 
demnation, Sigier  was  accused  of  heresy  and  was  found  guilty 
by  the  University  of  Paris,  a  court  very  unfriendly  to  him. 
Before  the  judgment  could  be  executed  against  him  he  fled  to 
Rome  and  laid  his  case  before  the  Roman  Curia.  Evidently 
he  was  exonerated,  but  suspicion  as  to  his  orthodoxy  persisted 
and  he  was  kept  under  observation.  While  still  under  this 
cloud,  his  freedom  of  movement  being  restricted  to  Orvieto, 
the  transferred  seat  of  the  Roman  Curia,  he  died  suddenly 
at  the  hand  of  his  servant,  an  insane  cleric.  Dante,  who  lived 
near  Orvieto,  must  have  known  that  Sigier,  who  had  always 
protested  his  innoience  of  heresy,  had  subscribed  to  the  act 
of  faith  demanded  of  him  by  the  Roman  Curia  and  had  led  a 
penitential  life  in  reparation  for  whatever  evil  his  intellectual 
errors  may  have  caused.  In  any  event,  Dante  wanted  a  repre- 
sentative of  philosophy  for  his  Paradiso  and  none  seemed  so 
well  known  as  Sigier.  The  selection  of  the  latter  for  the 
Heaven  of  the  Doctors  of  the  Church  may  also  have  been  due 
to  a  sentimental  impulse  upon  the  part  of  the  poet  who  could 
not  have  failed  to  have  been  moved  by  respect  for  the  genius 
of  Sigier,  by  sympathy  for  the  purity  of  his  intention  and  by 
admiration  for  his  fine  example  of  submission  to  the  Church, 
despite  the  disgrace  of  his  condemnation  and  the  hardships  of 
his  exile. 

Four  cantos  of  the  thirty-three  constituting  the  Paradiso  are 
devoted  to  the  glory  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas.  That  is  not  the 
only  means  the  poet  employs  to  extol  the  Angelic  Doctor  and 
to  offer  him  a  tribute  of  deep  devotion  and  gratitude.  The 
fact  that  Dante  places  the  crown  of  the  twelve  Doctors  of 
whom  Thomas  is  the  leader,  nearer  to  Beatrice  (Revelation), 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES.  2\ 

while  the  second  crown  including  Bonaventure  and  John  XXI, 
the  only  contemporary  pope  canonized  by  Dante,  is  somewhat 
remote,  is  taken  to  signify  that,  in  the  poet's  judgment,  Aquinas 
has  first  place  as  a  theologian  and  that  his  school,  teaching  the  , 
preeminence  of  the  intellect  over  the  will,  is  to  be  followed 
rather  than  the  mystical  school  which  upheld  the  doctrine 
of  the  superiority  of  the  will  over  the  intellect.  Dante  not 
only  knew  the  doctrine  of  St.  Thomas  but  warmly  advocated 
it,  even  in  the  matter  of  philosophical  opinion,  using  the  very 
arguments  put  forth  by  the  great  Dominican  genius  himself. 
The  omission  from  Dante's  pages  of  the  names  of  philosophers 
so  distinguished  as  Duns  Scotus,  Ocham,  and  Raymund  Lully, 
who,  in  Dante's  day,  opened  a  new  scholastic  era,  is  significant 
as  showing  the  poet's  championship  of  the  system  of  St.  Thomas 
as  the  "  master  of  those  who  know  ".  And  that  fact  is  the 
more  remarkable  because,  in  Dante's  age,  the  opinion  of 
Aquinas  was  not  regarded  as  the  last  word  on  philosophy  or 
theology.  The  explanation  is  found  in  the  fact  that  Dante 
was  doctrinally  so  much  of  a  Thomist  that  in  him  the  Summa 
was  transfused  into  the  poet. 

Is  it  a  wonder,  then,  that  Dante  mentions  Thomas  by  name 
ten  times  and  that  he  refers  to  him  or  quotes  his  words  seven 
times?  Is  it  a  wonder  that,  having  given  him  ascendancy  in 
the  domain  of  wisdom,  upon  earth,  he  should  make  Aquinas 
the  foremost  sun  in  the  Heaven  of  the  great  theologians  and 
of  others  who  loved  wisdom?  There  "the  good  brother 
Thomas"  (Con.  IV,  30)  appears  still  settling  the  perplexities 
of  his  disciple  Dante.  There  (Par.  XI,  14)  also,  Aquinas  is 
heard  delivering  a  masterly  eulogy  on  the  life  of  St.  Francis 
of  Assisi,  not  so  much  a  biography  of  cold  facts  as  a  picture 
of  the  inner  man,  drawn  with  such  consummate  art  as  ever  to 
command  the  understanding  and  elicit  the  sympathy  of  the 
reader  of  every  period. 

If  the  Divine  Comedy,  by  reason  of  its  doctrinal  matter,  is 
the  Summa  of  St.  Thomas,  it  is  also  the  Itinerarium  of  St. 
Bonaventure  by  reason  of  its  mysticism.  Dante's  philosophy 
of  life  is  like  a  great  Gothic  structure  composed  of  variegated 
stones  of  different  periods.  The  greatest  part  of  the  marble 
has  been  taken  from  the  quarries  of  Thomistic  Scholasticism, 
but  here  and  there  we  see  blocks  shaped  by  Plato,  by  St.  Augus- 


22  DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 

tine  and,  above  all,  by  St.  Bonaventure.  In  building,  Dante 
was  not  only  a  philosopher  and  a  theologian,  but  he  was 
supremely  a  poet.  And  as  a  poet  he  united  in  blissful  harmony 
the  two  things  so  paradoxical  as  to  seem  to  cry  out  against 
union — dogmatism  and  mysticism.  Dante's  mystical  theology 
on  every  page  bears  the  impress  of  the  mind  and  heart  of  St. 
Bonaventure. 

It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  the  eight-year-old  boy,  Dante, 
saw  Bonaventure  when  he  passed  through  Florence  in  the 
entourage  of  Gregory  X,  on  its  way  to  Lyons  to  open  a  general 
council  of  the  Church.  The  citizens  of  every  faction,  attracted 
by  the  arrival  of  the  distinguished  visitors,  assembled  about 
the  Rubaconte  bridge.  There  on  18  June,  1273,  the  Pope 
concluded  a  treaty  of  peace  between  the  Guelfs  and  Ghibellines, 
reference  to  which  is  made  in  Purg.  XII,  102.  The  next  year, 
the  year  in  which  Dante  saw  Beatrice  for  the  first  time,  Bona- 
venture died  at  Lyons  while  attending  the  first  session  of  the 
Council — a  death  that  called  from  the  Pope  the  remark:  "A 
pillar  of  Christianity  has  fallen."  The  funeral,  one  of  the 
most  noted  in  recorded  history,  was  attended  by  the  Emperor 
Baldwin  of  Constantinople,  James,  King  of  Aragon,  and  1500 
prelates  and  priest.  Did  the  news  of  Bonaventure's  premature 
death  reach  the  young  son  of  the  Allighieri,  and  did  it  recall 
to  his  memory  the  picture  of  this  noted  prelate,  so  lately  a 
visitor  to  the  city  on  the  Arno — this  man  with  a  figure  so  erect 
and  dignified,  charming  in  its  sympathy  and  lovable  in  its 
attractiveness?  It  would  seem  that  Dante's  meeting  of  Bona- 
venture in  Paradiso  recalled  such  a  far  distant  memory : 

Then  from  the  heart  of  one  of  those  new  lights 
There  came  a  voice  which  made  me  turn  to  see, 
E'en  as  the  star  the  needle's  course  incites.     (XII,  38) 

Be  that  as  it  may,  Bonaventure  is  placed  among  Dante's 
saints  by  reason  of  his  first  and  last  always  seeking  the  King- 
dom of  God  and  His  justice,  and  his  giving  only  second 
thought  to  temporal  concerns,  and  perhaps  he  is  the  greatest  of 
all  the  Dantean  clergy  of  post-Apostolic  times.  The  words 
with  which  Dante  characterizes  the  greatness  of  this  spirit 
who,  on  earth,  had  united  in  his  various  offices  whether  as  a 
simple  monk  in  his  cell,  or  in  commanding  positions  as  orator- 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES. 


23 


author,  professor,  Master- General  of  an  Order  or  Cardinal 
Bishop,  the  most  tender  piety  with  the  most  profound  learning 
— Dante's  estimate  expresses  the  highest  that  can  be  said  of  any 
priest — that  in  his  high  office  he  always  put  last  the  care  of  the 
left-hand,   i.    e.    always   made   the   care   of   temporal   things 


secondary  to  the  things  of  the  spirit. 

Bonaventure's  life  and  soul  am  I 

Of  Bagnoregio,  who  each  left-hand  care 

Placed  ever  far  below  his  office  high.     (XII,  127) 


The  spirit  selected  for  the  greatest  possible  service  to  Dante, 
the  mystic  traveller  in  the  invisible  world,  is  not  Bonaventure, 
Dante's  ideal  priest,  nor  Virgil,  "  his  sweetest  Sire ",  nor 
Beatrice,  the  animated  symbol  of  Revelation  still  recalling 
"  the  dear,  pure  gentle  maiden  whose  presence  and  smile  awoke 
to  consciousness  the  slumbering  powers "  of  Dante,  but  St. 
Bernard,  exalted  by  the  poet  as  the  type  of  contemplation^ 
though  the  saint's  contemporaries  and  successors  down  to  Bona- 
venture had  regarded  him  more  as  a  man  of  the  active  life, 
distinguished  especially  for  his  preaching  of  the  second 
Crusade.  Bernard  was  undoubtedly  chosen  as  the  poet's  guide 
on  the  unitive  way  because  the  Abbot  of  Clairvaux  had  been 
renowned  as  a  reformer  of  ecclesiastical  abuses,  a  mystic  the 
influence  of  whose  thought,  animated  with  love,  is  seen  in  many 
a  passage  of  the  Divine  Comedy,  and  above  all,  because  he 
had  been  a  devoted  servant  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary. 

After  the  vivid  personality  of  Beatrice,  that  of  St.  Bernard 
is  the  most  forcefully  visualized  in  Paradiso.  His  role  is  to 
lead  Dante  to  the  final  consummation  of  vision,  to  see  God 
in  His  Essence.  But  first  he  must  prepare  his  disciple  for 
union  with  the  Godhead  by  disciplining  his  sight  with  a  reve- 
lation of  the  glory  of  the  saints  and,  above  all,  of  the  Virgin 
Mother.  This  part  of  the  poem  indeed  is  a  sweet  exhalation 
of  the  spirit  of  sermons  which  Bernard  had  preached — ser- 
mons wherein  he  had  called  her  "  the  Sinners'  Ladder  whose 
top,  like  the  ladder  which  the  patriarch  Jacob  saw,  touched  the 
heavens,  nay  passed  through  the  heavens  until  it  reached  the 
well  of  living  waters  which  are  above  the  heavens ;  "  and  again  : 
"  Let  us  seek  for  grace  and  let  us  seek  it  through  Mary ;  for 
what  she  seeks  she  finds ;  for  she  cannot  seek  in  vain."  Now 
he  addresses  Dante : 

40±<  >79 


24  DANTE'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  CHURCH 

Thou  son  of  grace,  then  said  he,  this  glad  mirth 

In  which  we  live  will  ne'er  to  thee  be  known 

By  fixing  gaze  on  things  of  lower  worth ; 

But  to  the  circles  most  remote  look  on, 

Until  thou  see  the  Queen  who  rules  on  high, 

Whom  all  this  Kingdom  doth  with  homage  own.     (XXXI,  1 12) 

So  directed  by  Bernard,  Dante  beheld  the  Queen  of  Saints 
in  a  radiance  and  glory  impossible  to  reproduce  in  words. 
With  the  capacity  of  his  sight  enlarged  to  contemplate  the 
Divine  Light  alone,  he  must  still  have  Mary's  assistance.  St. 
Bernard  beseeches  the  favor  "  in  that  marvelous  outburst  of 
song  that  exhausts  all  that  can  be  sung  or  said  in  praise  of 
Heaven's  Queen,  though  it  seems  never  to  exhaust  the  admira- 
tion bestowed  upon  it 


>>  9 


O  Virgin  Mother,  daughter  of  thy  Son, 

Lowlier  and  loftier  than  all  creatures  seen, 

Goal  of  the  counsels  of  the  Eternal  One, 

Thyself  art  she  who  this  our  nature  mean 

Hast  so  ennobled  that  its  Maker  great 

Deigned  to  become  what  through  it  made  had  been. 

In  thy  blest  womb  the  Love  received  its  heat 

By  whose  warm  glow  in  this  our  peace  eterne 

This  heavenly  flower  first  did  germinate. 

Here,  in  Love's  noon-tide  brightness,  thou  dost  burn 

For  us  in  glory ;  and  to  mortal  sight 

Art  living  fount  of  hope  to  all  that  yearn. 

He  who  stands  here,  who,  from  the  lowest  pit 
Of  all  creation,  to  this  point  hath  pass'd 
The  lines  of  spirits,  each  in  order  fit, 
On  thee  for  grace  of  strength  himself  doth  cast 
So  that  he  may  his  eyes  in  vision  raise 
Upward  to  that  Salvation  noblest,  last. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  * 

Wherefore  do  thou  all  clouds  that  yet  impair 

His  vision  with  mortality  remove 

That  he  may  see  the  joy  beyond  compare. 

And  next  I  pray  thee,  Queen,  whose  power  doth  prove 

Matched  with  thy  will,  that  thou  will  keep  his  mind, 

After  such  gaze,  that  thence  it  may  not  move 

Let  thy  control  all  human  impulse  bind.     (XXXIII,  1) 

The  grace  is  granted.  Dante,  whether  in  the  body  or  out 
of  the  body,  he  knows  not,  beholds  the  Eternal  Light.  He 
gazes  into  the  limitless  depths  of  the  Divinity.  He  enjoys  the 
Vision  Beatific. 

This  article  began  with  a  quotation  from  the  Holy  Father 
— with  another  it  ends.     Not  content  with  making  Dante  the 

9  Bro.  Azarias. 


AND  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  TIMES. 


25 


subject  of  a  Brief,  his  Holiness  now  signalizes  him  in  an 
Encyclical  addressed  to  the  Doctors  and  Students  of  Letters 
and  Arts  of  the  Catholic  World.  The  concluding  imperative 
words  of  the  Encyclical,  which  constitutes  the  most  glowing 
papal  tribute  ever  paid  to  Dante,  are  as  follows:  "  Love  and 
hold  dear  this  poet  whom  we  do  not  hesitate  to  call  the  great- 
est extoller  of  Christian  wisdom  and  the  most  eloquent  of  all 
singers.  The  more  you  advance  in  love  of  him,  the  more  per- 
fectly will  you  open  your  minds  to  the  splendor  of  truth  and 
the  more  will  you  remain  constant  in  the  study  of  holy  faith 
and  obedient  to  it." 

Surely  after  this  eloquent  exhortation  the  expediency  of 
placing  Dante  in  its  curriculum  must  be  realized  by  every 
Catholic  college  and  seminary. 


Unification  of  Catechetical  Teaching 

Revised  in  Accordance 

with  the 

CODE  OF  1918 

CHRISTIAN    BROTHERS 

SERIES  OF 

CATECHISMS 

It  is  the  only  Complete  Uniform  Course  of  Christian 
Doctrine  by  Grades,  from  Kindergarten  to  Seminary, 
comprising 

COMPLETE  COURSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION 

Institute  of  the  Brothers  of  the  Christian  Schools 

Catechism  of  Christian  Doctrine  for  First  Communicants. 

Price,  per  hundred,  $3.50. 

No.  1.  Catechism  of  Christian  Doctrine.  (3d  grade.)  (For- 
merly No.  0.)  Price,  4%  cents  net. 

No.  2.  Catechism  of  Christian  Doctrine.  (For  4th,  5th,  and  6th 
grades.)      (Formerly  No.  1.)  Price,  9  cents  net. 

No.  3.  Catechism  of  Christian  Doctrine.  (For  7th  and  8th 
grades.)      (Formerly  No.  2.)  Price,  18  cents  net. 

No.  4.     Catechism   of    Christian   Doctrine.      (For   High   Schools, 

Academies,  and  Advanced  Classes  in  Sunday  Schools.) 

(Formerly  No.  3.)  Price,  72  cents  net. 

The  above  Catechisms  are  in  conformity  with  the  Decree  of 

the  Third  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore. 

No.  5.  Manual  of  Christian  Doctrine.  (For  Advanced  Classes 
in  Academies,  and  for  Colleges  and  Seminaries.)  (For- 
merly No.  4.)  Price,  $1.60  net. 

No.  6.  Exposition  of  Christian  Doctrine.  3  vols.,  with  Summaries 
and  Analysis.  (Reference  set  for  teachers  and  the 
Clergy,  being  a  complete  course  of  Religious  Instruc- 
tion in  English.)     (Formerly  No.  5.)     Price,  $8.50  net. 

The  Catechist's  Manual.  Price,  90  cents  net. 

i 


COMMENDATIONS  OP  THE  ONLY  COMPIiETE  COURSE 
OP  RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION  BY  GRADES 

Cardinal's    Residence,    Baltimore.    Md, 

I  take  great  pleasure  in  giving:  my  hearty  commendation  to 
the  "Complete  Course  of  Religious  Instruction"  prepared  by 
the  Brothers  of  the  Christian  Schools. 

The  completeness  of  the  course,  extending,  as  it  does,  from 
the  kindergarten  age  to  that  of  the  Seminary,  makes  the  work 
virtually  indispensable.  Teachers  will  find  the  larger  volumes 
valuable  in  the  preparation  of  lessons,  while  their  pupils  will 
be  greatly  aided  by  the  uniformity  maintained  in  the  smaller 
texts. 

The  synoptic  tables  in  the  volumes  on  Dogma,  Moral  and 
Worship  are  a  boon  to  the  busy  parish  priest  who  is  eager  to 
break  the  bread  of  sound  doetrine  to  his  flock. 

I  am  but  voicing  the  sentiments  of  His  Holiness,  Pope  Pius 
X,  in  hoping  that  the  series  may  have  the  largest  possible 
circulation. 

Sincerely  yours  in  Christ, 

*  J.  CARD.  GIBBONS. 


Cardinal's  Residence,  452  Madison   Avenue, 

New   York,   May   13,   1912. 

The  Course  of  Religious  Instruction  prepared  by  the  Brothers 
of  the  Christian  Schools  deserves  the  highest  commendation. 
An  examination  of  the  volumes  you  were  so  good  as  to  present 
to  me  has  convinced  me  that  we  now  have  a  complete  and 
uniform  series  in  English  covering  the  field  of  religious  instruc- 
tion from  the  kindergarten  to  the  college  inclusive.  The  series 
should  prove  invaluable  to  all  responsible  for  the  training  of 
our  Catholic  youth,  whether  in  primary  or  higher  grades. 

I  am  impressed  with  the  simplicity  of  language,  the  clear- 
ness of  style,  and  the  sound  and  thorough  exposition  of 
doctrine. 

I  warmly  recommend  the  entire  series  to  the  Reverend  Clergy, 
who  will  find  the  course  most  practical  and  helpful  in  cate- 
chetical teaching  of  children,  and  in  the  preparation  of  instruc- 
tions for  the  people,  especially  at  the  Low  Masses  and  Vespers. 

With   a  blessing,  I   am, 

Faithfully  yours  in  Christ, 

4*  JOHN    CARD.  PARLEY. 


Archbishop's   House,  Granby   Street, 

Boston,  January  28,   1913. 
Mr.  John  Joseph  McVey, 

1229  Arch    Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Dear    Mr.    McVey:    Please    accept    my    hearty    thanks    for    the 
beautiful    volumes    of    "The    Complete    Course    of    Religious    In- 
struction" which  you  presented  me. 

I  am  very  happy  to  add  my  commendation  to  a  work  that 
has  been  justly  praised  and  commended  by  such  distinguished 
members   of  the  hierarchy  in   America. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

►£  WILLIAM  CARD.  O'CONNELL, 

Abp.,  Boston. 

Archbishop's  House,  Logan  Square,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
I  cordially  congratulate  you  on  the  completion  of  the  Course 
of  Religious  Instruction.  The  work  is  worthy  of  the  warmest 
commendation.  The  series,  covering,  as  it  does,  the  entire  field 
of  catechetical  instruction  from  the  kindergarten  to  the 
advanced  classes,  meets  the  wishes  of  those  who  have  given 
serious  study  to  the  matter  of  teaching  Christian  Doctrine  and 
who  have  long  felt  the  need  of  a  carefully  graded  course  such 
as  you  have  now  given  us.  The  admirably  prepared  questions 
and  the  clear,  concise,  and,  withal,  complete  exposition  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church  in  the  answers,  reflect  great  credit  on 

•  • 

li 


the  Institute  of  the  Brothers   of  the   Christian   Schools,  under 
whose  wise  supervision  the  coarse  has  been  elaborated. 

I  ant  happy  to  recommend  this  coarse  of  Religions  Instruc- 
tion to  the  clergy,  and  to  the  teachers  in  oar  schools  and  to  all 
who  desire  to  make  the  sacred  truths  of  religion  better  known. 
They  will  find  In  it  an  invaluable  help  in  "instructing:  others 
unto  justice/'  and  I  am  sure  they  will  be  grateful  to  you  for 
your  zeal  and  enterprise  in  preparing  and  presenting  this  work 
to  the  public 

4-  E.  F.  PRENDERGAST,  Archbishop  of  Philadelphia. 


Bishop's    House,    367    Clermont    Avenue, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y„  November  1,  1911. 

Permit  me  to  add  my  recommendation  to  the  many  that  have 
come  to  you  of  your  translation  from  the  French  of  "The  Expo- 
sition of  Christian  Doctrine,"  in  three  parts,  Dogma,  Moral  and 
Worship.  Every  Sunday  of  the  year  it  has  been  the  rule  in 
our  church  here  to  give  only  catechetical  instructions,  fol- 
lowing a  definite  plan  mapped  out  at  the  beginning  of  the  year. 
These  have  proven  exceedingly  beneficial  to  our  people,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  most  interesting,  as  I  have  been  assured.  This 
was  our  custom  for  several  years  previous  to  the  issuing  of 
the  Encyclical  of  Pope  Piux  X,  «De  Doctrina  Christiana 
Tradenda";  for  I  consider  a  short,  well-prepared  doctrinal  dis- 
course at  the  Low  Masses  on  Sunday  one  of  the  absolute  neces- 
sities for  the  spiritual  life  of  our  people  and  the  progress  of 
the  Church  in  this  country.  In  preparing  for  these  discourses 
I  have  frequently  made  use  of  your  •♦Exposition  of  Christian 
Doctrine,"  and  I  have  found  it  full  of  information,  well-ordered 
and  simple  in  language.  In  these  days,  'when  the  Church  is 
confining  itself  more  and  more  to  simple  doctrinal  discourses, 
when  the  long-drawn-out,  flowery,  philosophical  sermons  of  a 
generation  ago  have  gone  out  of  use,  and  when  our  parochial 
school  system  is  attaining  such  wonderful  growth  and  effi- 
ciency, any  book  like  yours  that  adds  to  the  information  of  the 
catechist  should  find  a  hearty  welcome  in  the  library  of  every 
priest. 

Sincerely  yours  in  Christ, 

4"  GEORGE  W.  MUNDELEIN, 

Bishop  Anx.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


Archbishop's   Residence,  Norwood,   Ohio. 

You  have  done  your  work  well,  and  deserve  to  be  compli- 
mented on  it.  I  am  sure  that  the  Catechisms  will  meet  with 
general  approval. 

4<  HENRY  MOELLER,  Archbishop  of  Cincinnati. 


Denver,  Colo. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  one  "who  should  naturally  be  better 
fitted  to  edit  such  a  series  of  catechetical  instructions  than 
the  Christian  Brothers.  By  raising  their  holy  Founder  to  our 
Altars  and  putting  the  seal  of  her  highest  approbation  upon 
their  catechetical  works,  the  Church  has  crowned  their  labors 
and  shown  once  more  she  can  appreciate  true  merit  wherever 
found.  I  congratulate  you  upon  the  thoroughness  and  per- 
fection of  this  Complete  and  Uniform  Course  of  Christian 
Doctrine. 

4«  N.  C.  MATZ,  Bishop  of  Denver,  Colo. 


The  Cathedral,  St.  Augustine,  Fla. 
I  am  very  much  pleased  with  the  "Catechism  for  First  Com- 
municants," and  with  the  copies  of  Nos.  1,  2  and  3  of  the 
Catechism  of  Christian  Doctrine.  I  have  decided  to  introduce 
them  into  our  schools,  as  they  are  the  best  I  have  seen  in 
regard  to  uniformity,  grade  and  symmetry. 

*  WILLIAM  J.  KENNY,  Bishop  of  St.  Augustine. 

iii 


Bishop's  Residence,   Duluth,   Minn. 
The  little  books  are  well  graded  and  lead  up  to  the  Christian 
Brothers'   full  course  of  Religious  Instruction.     There  can  be 
no  mistake  in  recommending  this  series  of  excellent  catechisms, 

and  I  wish  it  great  success. 

*  JAMES  McGOLDRICK. 


St.  James'  Cathedral.  Seattle,  Wash. 
I  can  add  my  meed  of  praise  for  Nos.  1,  2  and  3  of  the  Cate- 
chism;   also    for    Catechism    for    First    Communicants.      Their 
excellence  is  seen  in  their  simplicity  of  explanation,  a  require- 
ment too  often  overlooked. 

»£  EDW.     J.  O'DEA,  Bishop  of  Seattle. 


Bishop's  House,  Little  Rock,  Ark. 

Tour  "First  Communion  Catechism"  is  very  practical,  and  I 
recommend  it  to  those  who  are  in  search  of  a  good  book  of 
instruction  for  first  communicants. 

■J.  JOHN  B.  MORRIS,  Bishop  of  Little  Rock. 


Bishop's  House.  Buffalo,  N.  T. 
I  wish  to  compliment  you  on  your  complete  Uniform  Course 
of  Christian  Doctrine,  written  by  the  Christian  Brothers.  These 
books  are  theologies  in  themselves,  made  practical  for  teachers 
and  pupils  by  logical  treatment  of  all  that  refers  to  the  teach- 
ing of  Faith  and  by  the  simple  manner  in  which  it  is  presented. 
This  series  of  books  deserves  a  large  circulation. 

4-  CHARLES  H.  COLTON,  Bishop. 


Bishop's  House,  Ogdensburg,  N.  T. 
I  warmly  approve  your  series  of  uniform  graded  catechisms 
for  the  teaching  of  Catholic  doctrine  according  to  the  needs 
of  the  time.  I  wish  they  were  adopted  everywhere,  so  as  to 
rid  us  of  the  multiplicity  of  text-books  which  is  a  hindrance  to 
the  proper  instruction  of  our  Catholic  youth. 

4«  H.  GABRIELS,  Bishop  of  Ogdensburg. 


Bishop's  House,  Sioux  City,  Iowa. 
I  have  loked  over  these  books  with  a  great  deal  of  interest 
and  have  handed  them  over  to  the  teachers  of  our  Parish 
School  for  use  in  the  classes.  I  believe  they  will  be  of  incal- 
culable advantage  to  the  little  ones,  especially  those  preparing 
for  their  First  Communion. 

+  P.  J.  GARRIGAN,  Bishop  of  Sioux  City. 


Bishop's  House,  South  Orange,  N.  J. 
It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  add  my  approbation  to  that 
which  you  have  received  from  His  Grace,  the  Archbishop,  for 
the  series  of  catechisms  which  you  are  publishing,  and  to 
express  the  hope  that  they  will  be  widely  circulated  in  our 
schools  and  academies. 

*  J.  J.  O'CONNOR,  Bishop  of  Newark. 


Academy  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
The   sample   copies   of   your   Course   of   Christian   Instruction 
were  received.     We  know  and  appreciate  the  larger  book  from 
which  they  are  made. 

A.   F.  CUSHING,   R.  S.  C. 

Mount  de  Sales  Academy,  Catonsville,  Md. 
I  have  looked  through  your  Graded  Course  of  Christian 
Instruction  and  find  the  books  excellent,  the  subject-matter 
attractively  and  clearly  presented,  the  division  of  parts  into 
Dogma,  Moral  and  Worship  something  new  in  the  treatment  of 
the  subject. 

SISTER   M.   ANGELA. 
iv 


CATECHETICAL  WORK  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURT 

Do  »©t  purchase  useless  Books.      If  you  can  afford  but  one  great 
reference  work,  then  let  it  be 

COURSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION 

Institute  of  the  Brothers  of  the  Christian  Schools. 


EXPOSITION  OF  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE 

BY  A  SEMINARY  PROFESSOR.     INTERMEDIATE  COURSE. 

3  Vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  Halt  Morocco,  Part  1, 

Dogma.     Part  2,  Moral,     Part  3,  Worship.     Or  Set, 
3  Vols.,  Cloth,  Net,  $8.50 

A  COMPLETE  course  of  Religious  Instruction  in  English. 
The  Summaries  and  Synopses  at  the  ends  of  the  chapters 
give  valuable  aid  in  outlining  and  Preparing  of  Sermons.   Just 
the   book   of  Explanation   for  Converts.     3    vols.,    l2mo.,    each   sue 
5%x7% — IV*  inches  thick.    (Each  600  pages.) 

What  especially  commends  this  work  is  its  perfect  method,  a 
method  as  rigidly  scientific  as  it  is  simple  and  perspicuous.  Each 
integral  part  is  first  taken  analytically,  all  its  de- 
tails being  set  forth  on  the  catechetical  plan. 
Then  follow  abundant  "historical  references"  from 
the  Sacred  Scriptures.  The  matter  ftius  analyzed 
and  illustrated  is  then  presented  synthetically  in  a 
"Summary."  Thus  the  student  is  enabled  to  grasp 
the  details  in  their  mutual  correlations.  The  analy- 
sis and  synthesis  are  finely  combined  and  exhibited 
to  the  eye  in  a  complete  and  admirably  arranged 
synoptical  table  of  schemata.  This  perfect  didac- 
tic method  is  given  full  influence  by  an  opposite 
variety  of  letter-press.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
seminarian  will  find  this  popular,  yet  methodical 
exposition  in  English  highly  serviceable,  both  in  acquiring  and  in 
reviewing  the  more  technical  science  in  Latin,  whilst  to  the  clergy 
its  luminous  summaries  and  synopses  will  be  as  useful  in  the  way  of 
outlines  for  catechetical  instructions  and  sermons. — Amer.  Ecclesias- 
tical Review. 

It  would  be  hard  to  give  too  high  praise  to  this  work,  and  were 
It  to  be  found  in  every  household,  studied  and  mastered,  a  most 
efficacious  step  towards  this  country's  conversion  would  have  been 
taken,  for  it  would  make  Catholics  so  intelligent  in  their  hold  upon 
their  religion  that  every  one  would  be  a  source  of  light.  It  is  not 
like  so  many  similar  works,  a  dry  compendium,  a  collection  of  bare 
bones  without  life,  but  is  pervaded  by  a  spirit  of  piety  and  unction 
due  to  a  constant  and  apt  citation  of  Holy  Scripture.  The  definitions 
are  clear  and  theologically  exact.  The  chief  excellence,  however, 
ssems  to  us  to  be  its  completeness. — Catholic  World. 

PUBLISHED  BY 

JOHN  JOSEPH  McVEY 

1229  ARCH  STREET  PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AT  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

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OCT  21  19615 


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